THE Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR) has appealed to political parties taking part in this year’s election to be realistic with the way they package their campaign messages to avoid making vague promises which were not attainable.

And JCTR has asked Zambians to challenge the politicians to clearly explain to them how they intended to achieve their campaign promises so that they can make informed decisions before voting for any candidates.

JCTR director Fr. Leonard Chiti told the Daily Nation in an interview yesterday that as the country gets closer to the polls Zambians will be bombarded with all sorts of promises from people seeking to be elected but urged politicians to be sincere in their pledge to serve the people. He said it was unfortunate that the same people who had failed to deliver according to their campaign messages previously have again gone to the same people they failed to serve seeking to get a new mandate with the same strategy and message.

“As the campaigns are heating up, the politicians are again going back to our people seeking for fresh mandates even when they failed to deliver previously and this is why we are saying these politicians should be sincere enough in what they are pledging to do for Zambians because we know what those that have already been in office have managed or failed to do.”